


A Kind Of Magic

by Angel Ascending (angel_in_ink)



Series: Short and Sweet (Fics of About 1000 Words or Less) [15]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: But You Don't Have To Squint Very Hard To Make It One, I'm Greedy And I Want Them Both, Not A Shipping Fic Technically, Other, Our Raven Boy Makes An Appearence Because I Miss Him Too, Self-indulgent fluff, Set In An AU Where Molly Comes Back But We Still Have Caduceus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-03
Updated: 2018-09-03
Packaged: 2019-07-06 14:26:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15887874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angel_in_ink/pseuds/Angel%20Ascending
Summary: “You’re awfully good at that.”“Hmmm?” Molly stood up from where he had been crouched and the little beggar child he had been talking to scampered off with a smile on their face, a few silver coins in one hand and a boiled sweet in the other. “Good at what?”“Making people smile,” Caduceus said, looking down at Molly with a slight grin. “Also making things appear out of thin air. You’re good at that too.”





	A Kind Of Magic

“You’re awfully good at that.”

“Hmmm?” Molly stood up from where he had been crouched and the little beggar child he had been talking to scampered off with a smile on their face, a few silver coins in one hand and a boiled sweet in the other. “Good at what?”

“Making people smile,” Caduceus said, looking down at Molly with a slight grin. “Also making things appear out of thin air. You’re good at that too.”

Molly chuckled as they continued walking down the streets of Zadash, heading for a tea shop that Molly had discovered and Caduceus hadn’t been to yet. “Why thank you. Those were both skills I honed at the circus,” Molly said, smiling fondly at memories of happy times. “There was a little dwarven girl there named Toya, shy and quiet most of the time, with a singing voice that could make devils weep. Gustav took her in after he found her living on the streets, singing for her supper. Her life hadn’t been an easy one. And there I was, with no name I could remember, no memories after crawling out of the ground, with scars all over me, and somehow we became friends of a sort. She had trouble sleeping, and I’d cheer her up with little tricks, sleight of hand stuff. It was usually hit or miss really, and nearly half the time I’d fumble the sweet or accidentally crush the flower I was trying to hide, but she smiled, even when I botched the trick. It wasn’t magic really, but it wasn’t like I was going to show her the stuff with the swords and the blood and the mocking people in Infernal. Not on purpose anyway.”

Caduceus nodded thoughtfully as Molly continued speaking.

“One of the last tricks I did, the night before I died, I messed that one up too, trying to swap out one of my tarot cards for a crescent moon bauble I had palmed. It was a clumsy trick, but the child I was performing it for didn’t seem to mind. I told myself I would work on it in my spare time, and it must have still been on my mind after I died. I—“ Molly paused. “Do people, when they, you know, come back from the dead, do they talk about what happened _after_ they died? Like where they went? Or what they saw?”

“I wouldn’t know,” Caduceus said slowly. “You’re the first person I’ve seen come back from the dead. Not that I actually _saw_ it, mind you.” After defeating the Iron Shepherds, the party had traveled back to Molly’s grave only to find Molly wrapped in both his tapestry and his coat, shivering. He had been weak and silent for days before both words and personality had seemed to come back in a flood.

“Well, I don’t know if any of what I remember was real. It’s like trying to recall a fever dream. Maybe my brain was trying to make a really cool afterlife for me in my last moments. But there was this half-elf all dressed in black leather with huge raven wings. Looked like something off the cover of one of Jester’s romance novels. But we were talking about something and I needed something to do with my hands and somehow I still had my coat, and my coat still had everything in the pockets, my cards and all. So I was trying to perfect the last trick I had done and I remember him laughing. It sounded like something he hadn’t done in awhile, the laughing I mean. I remember him telling me he’d show me how to do that trick and then… it’s all fuzzy. But since I’ve come back I haven’t messed up a single trick. Not once. Weird, right?”

“I don’t know, I think it sounds pretty great. Now milk. Milk is weird.”

Molly laughed, long and loud, before producing a silk flower from seemingly out of nowhere and tucking it behind one of Caduceus’s long ears, having to stand on tiptoe to do it. It wasn’t flashy like some of the things Caduceus had seen Jester or Caleb do, but to Caduceus the appearance of the flower combined with Molly’s laughter felt like a kind of magic all the same.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Day Three of the Mollymauk Lives Fest, totally at the spur of the moment, for the prompts "Flowers," and "Fun With Magic." I think this counts!
> 
> Also yes I named it after a Queen song. 
> 
> I'm angel-ascending over on Tumblr if y'all want to stop by and say hi!


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